February 5
Events * 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy. * 756 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declares himself emperor and establishes the state of Yan. *1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion. *1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society. *1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. *1782 – Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca. *1783 – In Calabria a sequence of strong earthquakes begins. *1807 – HMS Blenheim (1761) and HMS Java disappear off the coast of Rodrigues. *1810 – Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins. *1818 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. *1849 – University of Wisconsin–Madison's first class meets at Madison Female Academy. *1852 – The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public. *1859 – Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state. *1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia. *1885 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession. *1905 – in Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialities. *1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic. *1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane. *1917 – The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. * 1917 – The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. *1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military. * 1918 – is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk. *1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists. *1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal. *1933 – Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. *1939 – Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain. *1941 – World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea. *1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila. *1946 – The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea. *1958 – Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic. * 1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. *1962 – French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence. *1963 – The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law. *1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission. *1975 – Riots break in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship. *1985 – Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years. *1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. *1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. * 1994 – Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo. *1997 – The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families. *2000 – Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya. *2004 – Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion. *2008 – A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57. Births * 976 – Emperor Sanjō of Japan (d. 1017) *1505 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian and author (d. 1572) *1519 – René of Châlon, (d. 1544) *1534 – Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian soldier, composer, and critic (d. 1612) *1589 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet and educator (d. 1669) *1594 – Biagio Marini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1663) *1608 – Gaspar Schott, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1666) *1626 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (d. 1696) *1650 – Anne Jules de Noailles, French general (d. 1708) *1703 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-American minister (d. 1764) *1723 – John Witherspoon, Scottish-American minister and academic (d. 1794) *1725 – James Otis, Jr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1783) *1748 – Christian Gottlob Neefe, German composer and conductor (d. 1798) *1788 – Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850) *1795 – Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist, geologist, and physicist (d. 1871) *1804 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet and hymn-writer (d. 1877) *1808 – Carl Spitzweg, German painter and poet (d. 1885) *1827 – Peter Lalor, Irish-Australian activist and politician (d. 1889) *1810 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist and composer (d. 1880) *1837 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher, founded Moody Church, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers (d. 1899) *1840 – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber (d. 1921) * 1840 – Hiram Maxim, American engineer, invented the Maxim gun (d. 1916) *1847 – Eduard Magnus Jakobson, Estonian missionary and engraver (d. 1903) *1848 – Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author and critic (d. 1907) * 1848 – Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean lieutenant (d. 1882) *1852 – Terauchi Masatake, Japanese field marshal and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1919) *1866 – Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Irish politician, 3rd and last Governor-General of the Irish Free State (d. 1963) *1876 – Ernie McLea, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1931) *1878 – André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, founded Citroën (d. 1935) *1880 – Gabriel Voisin, French pilot and engineer (d. 1973) *1889 – Patsy Hendren, English cricketer and footballer (d. 1962) * 1889 – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (d. 1962) * 1889 – Recep Peker, Turkish officer and politician (d. 1950) *1897 – Dirk Stikker, Dutch businessman and politician, 3rd Secretary General of NATO (d. 1979) *1900 – Adlai Stevenson II, American soldier, politician, and diplomat, 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 1965) *1903 – Joan Whitney Payson, American businesswoman and philanthropist (d. 1975) *1906 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988) *1907 – Birgit Dalland, Norwegian politician (d. 2007) * 1907 – Pierre Pflimlin, French politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2000) *1908 – Marie Baron, Dutch swimmer and diver (d. 1948) * 1908 – Peg Entwistle, Welsh-American actress (d. 1932) * 1908 – Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twins (d. 1969) *1909 – Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish violinist and composer (d. 1969) *1910 – Charles Philippe Leblond, French-Canadian biologist and academic (d. 2007) * 1910 – Francisco Varallo, Argentinian footballer (d. 2010) *1911 – Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960) *1914 – William S. Burroughs, American author and painter (d. 1997) * 1914 – Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist, biophysicist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998) *1915 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990) *1917 – Ruth Mott, English chef and author (d. 2012) * 1917 – Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress (d. 2012) *1919 – Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006) * 1919 – Tim Holt, American actor (d. 1973) * 1919 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996) *1921 – Ken Adam, German-born English production designer and art director (d. 2016) *1924 – Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, Indian cardinal (d. 2014) *1927 – Robert Allen, American pianist and composer (d. 2000) * 1927 – Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Dutch captain and pilot (d. 1977) *1928 – Tage Danielsson, Swedish author, actor, and director (d. 1985) * 1928 – Andrew Greeley, American priest, sociologist, and author (d. 2013) * 1928 – P. J. Vatikiotis, Israeli-American historian and political scientist (d. 1997) *1929 – Luc Ferrari, French pianist and composer (d. 2005) * 1929 – Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician, 19th Chancellor of Austria (d. 2008) *1932 – Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager (d. 2016) *1933 – Jörn Donner, Finnish director and screenwriter * 1933 – B.S. Johnson, English author, poet, and critic (d. 1973) *1934 – Hank Aaron. American baseball player * 1934 – Don Cherry, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster *1935 – Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982) *1936 – K. S. Nissar Ahmed, Indian poet and academic *1937 – Stuart Damon, American actor and singer * 1937 – Larry Hillman, Canadian ice hockey player and coach * 1937 – Gaston Roelants, Belgian runner * 1937 – Alar Toomre, Estonian-American astronomer and mathematician * 1937 – Wang Xuan, Chinese computer scientist and academic (d. 2006) *1938 – Rafael Nieto Navia, Colombian lawyer, jurist, and diplomat *1939 – Brian Luckhurst, English cricketer (d. 2005) *1940 – H. R. Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (d. 2014) * 1940 – Luke Graham, American wrestler (d. 2006) * 1940 – Dick Warlock, Canadian actor and stuntman *1941 – Stephen J. Cannell. American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010) * 1941 – David Selby, American actor and playwright * 1941 – Kaspar Villiger, Swiss engineer and politician, 85th President of the Swiss Confederation *1942 – Roger Staubach, American football player, sportscaster, and businessman *1943 – Nolan Bushnell, American engineer and businessman, founded Atari, Inc. * 1943 – Michael Mann, American director, producer, and screenwriter * 1943 – Craig Morton, American football player and sportscaster *1944 – Henfil, Brazilian journalist, author, and illustrator (d. 1988) * 1944 – Al Kooper, American singer-songwriter and producer * 1944 – Tamanoumi Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 51st Yokozuna (d. 1971) *1945 – Douglas Hogg, English lawyer and politician, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food *1946 – Amnon Dankner, Israeli journalist and author (d. 2013) * 1946 – Mauro Pagani, Italian singer-songwriter and violinist * 1946 – Charlotte Rampling, English actress, model and chanteuse *1947 – Mary L. Cleave, American engineer and astronaut * 1947 – Clemente Mastella, Italian politician, Italian Minister of Justice * 1947 – Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver and sportscaster *1948 – Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish footballer and manager * 1948 – Christopher Guest, American actor and director * 1948 – Barbara Hershey, American actress * 1948 – Errol Morris, American director and producer * 1948 – Tom Wilkinson, English actor *1949 – Kurt Beck, German soldier and politician * 1949 – Yvon Vallières, Canadian educator and politician *1950 – Catherine Castel, French actress and makeup artist * 1950 – Jonathan Freeman, American actor and singer *1951 – Russell Grant, English astrologer and author * 1951 – Nikolay Merkushkin, Mordovian engineer and politician, 1st Head of the Republic of Mordovia * 1951 – Elizabeth Swados, American composer and director (d. 2016) *1952 – Daniel Balavoine, French singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1986) * 1952 – Vladimir Moskovkin, Ukrainian-Russian geographer, economist, and academic *1953 – Freddie Aguilar, Filipino singer-songwriter and guitarist * 1953 – John Beilein, American basketball player and coach * 1953 – Gustavo Benítez, Paraguayan footballer and manager *1954 – Cliff Martinez, American drummer and songwriter * 1954 – Frank Walker, Australian journalist and author *1955 – Mike Heath, American baseball player and manager * 1955 – Kenji Ohba, Japanese actor *1956 – Héctor Rebaque, Mexican race car driver * 1956 – David Wiesner, American author and illustrator *1957 – Jüri Tamm, Estonian hammer thrower and politician * 1957 – Nick Laird-Clowes, English singer-songwriter and guitarist *1958 – Hong Yeo-jin, South Korean actress and beauty pageant winner *1959 – Sudip Chatterjee, Indian footballer and manager (d. 2006) * 1959 – Jennifer Granholm Canadian-American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Michigan * 1959 – Armando Husillos, Argentinian footballer and manager *1960 – Aris Christofellis, Greek soprano and musicologist * 1960 – Bonnie Crombie, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 6th Mayor of Mississauga *1961 – Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager * 1961 – Tim Meadows, American actor and screenwriter * 1961 – Hakan Peker, Turkish singer-songwriter and dancer *1962 – Jacqui Dankworth, English singer and actress * 1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, producer, and screenwriter *1963 – Steven Shainberg, American director, producer, and screenwriter *1964 – Laura Linney, American actress * 1964 – Duff McKagan, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer * 1964 – Helena Bergström, Swedish actress, director, and screenwriter * 1964 – Piotr Trzaskalski, Polish director and screenwriter *1965 – Tarik Benhabiles, Algerian-French tennis player and coach * 1965 – Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager * 1965 – Keith Moseley, American bass player and songwriter *1966 – Dean Nalder, Australian footballer and politician * 1966 – José María Olazábal, Spanish golfer * 1966 – Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (d. 1993) *1967 – Chris Parnell, American actor and comedian *1968 – Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach * 1968 – Marcus Grönholm, Finnish race car driver *1969 – Michael Sheen, Welsh actor and director * 1969 – Derek Stephen Prince, American voice actor *1970 – Jean-Marc Jaumin, Belgian basketball player and coach * 1970 – Darren Lehmann, Australian cricketer and coach *1971 – Michel Breistroff, French ice hockey player (d. 1996) * 1971 – Sara Evans, American singer-songwriter * 1972 – Brad Fittler, Australian rugby player, coach, and sportscaster *1973 – Richard Matvichuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach * 1973 – Trijntje Oosterhuis, Dutch singer-songwriter * 1973 – Luke Ricketson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster *1974 – Juha Tapio, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist *1975 – Adam Carson, American drummer * 1975 – Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager *1976 – John Aloisi, Australian footballer and manager * 1976 – Brian Moorman, American football player *1977 – Ben Ainslie, English sailor * 1977 – Simone Cristicchi, Italian singer-songwriter * 1977 – Adam Everett, American baseball player and coach * 1977 – Andrew Baldwin, American soldier, physician, and triathlete * 1977 – Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Latvian footballer and manager * 1977 – Elin Topuzakov, Bulgarian footballer and manager *1978 – Brian Russell, American football player * 1978 – Samuel Sánchez, Spanish cyclist *1980 – Stefano Di Fiordo, Italian footballer * 1980 – Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, created LiveJournal * 1980 – Peter, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia * 1980 – Tiwa Savage, Nigerian singer-songwriter and actress * 1980 – Jo Swinson, English politician *1981 – Sara Michael Foster, American actress and producer * 1981 – Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter * 1981 – Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer * 1981 – Julie Zenatti, French singer and actress *1982 – Kevin Everett, American football player * 1982 – Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player * 1982 – Rodrigo Palacio, Argentinian footballer *1983 – Sanna Askelöf, Swedish martial artist *1984 – Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer *1985 – Lindsey Cardinale, American singer * 1985 – Constantinos Georgiades, Cypriot footballer * 1985 – Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player * 1985 – Laurence Maroney, American football player * 1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer *1986 – Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer * 1986 – Manuel Fernandes, Portuguese footballer * 1986 – Gerardo Flores, Mexican footballer * 1986 – Sekope Kepu, Australian-New Zealand rugby player * 1986 – Roger Kluge, German cyclist * 1986 – Sebastián Pinto, Chilean footballer * 1986 – Madison Rayne, American wrestler * 1986 – Billy Sharp, English footballer * 1986 – Reed Sorenson, American race car driver * 1986 – Carlos Villanueva, Chilean footballer *1987 – Darren Criss, American actor, singer, and entrepreneur * 1987 – Curtis Jerrells, American basketball player * 1987 – Alex Kuznetsov, Ukrainian-American tennis player * 1987 – Linus Omark, Swedish ice hockey player * 1987 – Donald Sanford, American-Israeli sprinter *1988 – Natalie Geisenberger, German luger * 1988 – Kevin J. Maclean, Scottish singer-songwriter * 1988 – Karin Ontiveros, Mexican model and sportscaster *1989 – Marina Melnikova, Russian tennis player *1990 – Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player * 1990 – Lars Krogh Gerson, Luxembourgian-Norwegian footballer * 1990 – Kim Ji-soo, South Korean singer-songwriter and actor * 1990 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer * 1990 – Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer *1991 – Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer * 1991 – Alba Riquelme, Paraguayan model, Miss Paraguay 2011 * 1991 – Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer *1992 – Neymar, Brazilian footballer * 1992 – Nabilla Benattia, French model * 1992 – Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer *1993 – Aleksandr Ilyin, Russian footballer * 1993 – Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player *1994 – Arisa Komiya, Japanese actress and model * 1994 – Saki Nakajima, Japanese singer and actress *1995 – Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer *1997 – Patrick Roberts, English footballer *1998 – Sara Tomic, Australian tennis player *2001 – Juan Karlos Labajo, Filipino singer and actor Deaths * 523 – Avitus of Vienne, Latin archbishop and saint (b. 470) * 806 – Emperor Kanmu, Japanese emperor (b. 737) *1578 – Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian painter (b. 1520) *1705 – Philipp Spener, German theologian and author (b. 1635) *1751 – Henri François d'Aguesseau, French jurist and politician, Chancellor of France (b. 1668) *1754 – Nicolaas Kruik, Dutch astronomer and cartographer (b. 1678) *1766 – Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705) *1775 – Eusebius Amort, German theologian and academic (b. 1692) *1790 – William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710) *1807 – Pasquale Paoli, Corsican commander and politician (b. 1725) *1881 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and academic (b. 1795) *1882 – Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Spanish orientalist and diplomat (b. 1841) *1892 – Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish author (b. 1807) *1915 – Ross Barnes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1850) *1917 – Jaber II Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (b. 1860) *1922 – Christiaan de Wet, South African general and politician, State President of the Orange Free State (b. 1854) * 1922 – Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian engineer, invented the Mechanical pencil (b. 1871) *1927 – Inayat Khan, Indian mystic and educator (b. 1882) *1931 – Athanasios Eftaxias, Greek politician, 118th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1849) *1933 – Josiah Thomas, English-Australian miner and politician (b. 1863) *1937 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (b. 1861) *1938 – Hans Litten, German lawyer and jurist (b. 1903) *1941 – Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (b. 1864) * 1941 – Otto Strandman, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1875) *1946 – George Arliss, English actor and playwright (b. 1868) *1948 – Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (b. 1883) *1952 – Adela Verne, English pianist and composer (b. 1877) *1955 – Victor Houteff, Bulgarian religious reformer and author (b. 1885) *1957 – Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Lebanese surgeon and author (b. 1890) *1962 – Jacques Ibert, French-Swiss composer (b. 1890) *1967 – Leon Leonwood Bean, American businessman, founded L.L.Bean (b. 1872) * 1967 – Violeta Parra, Chilean singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1917) *1969 – Thelma Ritter, American actress and singer (b. 1902) *1970 – Rudy York, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1913) *1972 – Marianne Moore, American poet, author, critic, and translator (b. 1887) *1976 – Rudy Pompilli, American saxophonist (Bill Haley & His Comets) (b. 1926) *1977 – Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist and academic (b. 1894) *1981 – Ella T. Grasso, American politician, 83rd Governor of Connecticut (b. 1919) *1982 – Neil Aggett, Kenyan-South African physician and union leader (b. 1953) *1983 – Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, American chemist and academic (b. 1925) *1987 – William Collier, Jr., American actor and producer (b. 1902) *1989 – Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (b. 1937) *1991 – Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903) *1992 – Miguel Rolando Covian, Argentinian-Brazilian physiologist and academic (b. 1913) *1993 – Seán Flanagan, Irish footballer and politician, 7th Irish Minister for Health (b. 1922) * 1993 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1909) * 1993 – William Pène du Bois, American author and illustrator (b. 1916) *1995 – Doug McClure, American actor (b. 1935) *1997 – Pamela Harriman, English-American diplomat, 58th United States Ambassador to France (b. 1920) * 1997 – René Huyghe, French historian and author (b. 1906) *1998 – Tim Kelly, American guitarist (b. 1963) *1999 – Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906) *2000 – Claude Autant-Lara, French director and screenwriter (b. 1901) *2004 – John Hench, American animator (b. 1908) *2005 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Togolese general and politician, President of Togo (b. 1937) * 2005 – Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1921) *2006 – Norma Candal, Puerto Rican-American actress (b. 1927) *2007 – Leo T. McCarthy, New Zealand-American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 43rd Lieutenant Governor of California (b. 1930) * 2007 – Alfred Worm, Austrian journalist, author, and academic (b. 1945) *2008 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, founded Transcendental Meditation (b. 1918) *2010 – Brendan Burke, Canadian ice hockey player and activist (b. 1988) * 2010 – Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 13th South Africa Ambassador to United States (b. 1924) *2011 – Brian Jacques, English author and radio host (b. 1939) * 2011 – Peggy Rea, American actress and casting director (b. 1921) *2012 – Sam Coppola, American actor (b. 1932) * 2012 – Al De Lory, American keyboard player, conductor, and producer (b. 1930) * 2012 – John Turner Sargent, Sr., American publisher (b. 1924) * 2012 – Jo Zwaan, Dutch sprinter (b. 1922) *2013 – Reinaldo Gargano, Uruguayan journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Uruguay (b. 1934) * 2013 – Egil Hovland, Norwegian composer and conductor (b. 1924) * 2013 – Tom McGuigan, New Zealand soldier and politician, 23rd New Zealand Minister of Health (b. 1921) *2014 – Robert A. Dahl, American political scientist and academic (b. 1915) * 2014 – Samantha Juste, English-American singer and television host (b. 1944) *2015 – K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka (b. 1933) * 2015 – Marisa Del Frate, Italian actress and singer (b. 1931) * 2015 – Val Logsdon Fitch, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923) * 2015 – Herman Rosenblat, Polish-American author (b. 1929) *2016 – Ciriaco Cañete, Filipino martial artist (b. 1919) Holidays and observances * Christian feast day: ** Agatha of Sicily ** Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson (Episcopal Church (USA)) ** Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan (in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Anglican Church in Japan) ** February 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) * Constitution Day (Mexico) * Crown Princess Mary's birthday (Denmark) * Kashmir Solidarity Day (Pakistan) * Liberation Day (San Marino) * National Weatherperson's Day (United States) * Runeberg's Birthday (Finland) * Unity Day (Burundi) External links * BBC: On This Day * * On This Day in Canada Category:Days of the year Category:February